Lactate, as a metabolite of easy and quick assessment, has been studied over time in critically ill patients in order to evaluate its prognostic ability. The present review is focused on the prognostic role of lactate levels in acute cardiac patients (that is with acute coronary syndrome, cardiogenic shock, cardiac arrest, non including post cardiac surgery patients). In patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction treated with mechanical revascularization, hyperlactatemia identified a subset of patients at higher risk for early death and in-hospital complications, being strictly related mainly to hemodynamic derangement...

To explore the effects of different degrees of hypothermia on brain tissue apoptosis after cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Cardiac arrest for 5 min induced by asphyxia method was used to create CPR model. 30 SD rats were randomly divided into control group (normothermia), 33 °C hypothermia group and 30 °C hypothermia group with ten rats in each. Rats in control group received routine treatment at 25 °C room temperature after CPR; Rats in mild hypothermia and moderate hypothermia groups were given hypothermia treatment 0...

OBJECTIVE: To summarize the surgical results of truncus arteriosus in children. METHODS: Five patients with persistent truncus arteriosus underwent complete repair of truncus arteriosus. Type I was found in 2 patients, type II in 2 and type IV in 1 according to Collett and Edwards. Their ages ranged from 3 to 12 years (mean 6.3 years). The time of pulmonary circulation and evacuation of the pulmonary artery was not significantly prolonged. Complete repair was via a median sternotomy utilizing hypothemia with cardiopulmonary bypass, entailing separation of the pulmonary arteries from the truncus, repair of the resultant defect in the aorta, ventricular septal defect (VSD) closure with a patch in which the interrupted pledget-supported suture was placed in the truncal valve annulus of the superior border of VSD, and restoration of right ventricular outflow tract (RVOT) continuity utilizing extra cardiac conduits, of which autologous pericardial valved dacron conduit was used in 4 patients and homograft conduit in 1...

Therapeutic hypothermia may improve outcome after severe head injury, but its efficacy has not been established in children with a severe head injury. The authors evaluated the effects of hypothemia (33-34 degrees C) in 9 severely closed head-injured children (under 16 years old). The cooling period was 3 to 21 days (mean 9.3). Hypothermia significantly reduced ICP when it reached 33-34 degrees C. From 3 to 6 months after injury, 6 (67%) of the 9 patients had good outcome (good recovery in 2 and moderate disability in 4), but 3 (33%) had poor outcome (severe disability in 2 and vegetative state in one)...

Comparative single-dose toxicity studies of (+/-)-4-diethylamino-1,1-dimethylbut-2-yn-1-yl 2-cyclohexyl-2-hydroxy-2-phenylacetate monohydrochloride monohydrate(NS-21), a new drug for the treatment of urinary frequency and incontinence, were conducted in ddY mice and Sprague-Dawley rats after oral(p.o.),intraperitoneal(i.p.) and subcutaneous(s.c.) administration, and in Beagle dogs after p.o. administration. The p.o. LD50 values of NS-21 were 852 and 1167 mg/kg for male and female mice, 2839 and 1739 mg/kg for male and female rats, respectively...

5-HT1A receptor agonists have been shown to be effective clinically in the treatment of depression and anxiety. Flesinoxan is an example which is highly selective for the 5-HT1A receptor subtype. The objective of this study was to appraise the antidepressant potential of flesinoxan (1 and 3 mg/kg s.c.) in three tests which are indicative of antidepressant activity. These are (1) the forced swim test, following sub-acute administration, (2) 'open field' activity in the olfactory bulbectomised (OB) rat, following chronic administration, and (3) 8-OH-DPAT-induced hypothemia following chronic treatment...

To characterize drug actions on thermoregulatory processes it is necessary to know whether compounds which alter body temperature also cause changes in thermoregulatory motivation. In the present experiments the effects of sodium salicylate, aminopyrine and chlorpromazine (CPZ) on rectal temperature (Tre) and behavior were measured in rats trained to escape heat and obtain cooling. All three drugs produced hypothermia in a 23 degree C environment but the effects upon behavior suggest that the compounds have different actions...

Right and left guinea-pig atria responded to decreasing temperatures (42-27 degrees C) with elevation for force of contraction and concomitant increases in cAMP. When atria were rapidly cooled from 42 to 27 degrees C the increase in cAMP occurred prior to the onset of the inotropic responses. Papaverine (3 X 10(-5) M) potentiated the effects of temperature on cAMP and force of contraction on left atria driven at 0.5 Hz. On right atria beating spontaneously at frequencies above 2 Hz papaverine only potentiated the effect of decreasing temperatures on the response of cAMP but not on that of force of contraction...